Text Organization Teacher Resources

Follow the format of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles with a journal-writing activity. Readers choose a character and examine the character's life and circumstances through brainstorming, research, and discussion before...

Should people only have what they need? Questions from the 2005 AP® English Language and Composition Free-Response section asks scholars to write essays evaluating the argument that those who are more fortunate should give all excess...

Cover the vocabulary and thematic concepts from Lois Lowry's The Giver with an extended reference guide. It includes relevant plot elements, discussions on themes and motifs, and any possible issues arising from your class's...

To conclude a study of social justice and tolerance designed to prepare classes for a visit to the Museum of Tolerance, class members brainstorm a safe and peaceful world. They then write about their own vision of this world.

A resource on plot structure and summarizing begins with an audio retelling of "The Horse, Hunter, and Stag." After listening to the fable, pupils break down the plot chronologically before writing a short summary.

Can you ever change your true nature? Aesop's "The Cat-Maiden" explores the theme of identity with an experiment involving a cat-turned-wife. After listening to an audio version of the fable, learners argue their own opinions about the...

As guided practice, class members work together to revise a model persuasive paragraph. Then they practice independently with their own writing. The included rubric looks at prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, nonfiction text...

Practice Internet research skills. Each class member will need Internet access in order to follow along as you model how to search using key words and to do their own research on African and Asian elephants. Their notes will go into a...

Organize your curriculum of narratives and stories within an ELA unit and keep track of what elements are needed to ensure the unit's success. This curriculum map template allows you to plan for supporting texts, comprehension...

Learners discuss the essay, Kumara From the Farmer's Field and examine strategies for organizing facts for future reference. In this reading comprehension lesson, students pretend they are advertising executives who must create a grocery...

Pupils organize a story. In this language arts lesson, students pair with younger pupils and lead them through the steps of writing their own illustrated stories.

Fifth graders internalize the ability to recall, inform, or organize ideas when comprehending text. Students practice paraphrasing/summarizing by taking it to the playground. Students line up with 4B5 feet on each side of the group,...

Students sort out important information and create a visual framework for reviewing in the future. They organize a large quantity of information thus helping with learning and remembering details, cause and effect, comparison and...

Students conduct research on a selected topic, organize the research information, and write a report. They read and discuss the rubric, brainstorm to develop criteria for determining credible sources, complete a KWL chart or web, and...

Students restate facts and details in text to inform and organize ideas and have a choice of four activities to enhance learning,

Learners use chart data to determine the location of the epicenter of an earthquake. This task assesses students' abilities to generalize and infer, organize data, interpret data, and apply mathematical concepts.

First graders listen to the story The Hungry Caterpillar, then sequentially organize their own re-writing and re-creating of the story. They construct illustrations for their book using the collage technique Eric Carle used in his...

Young scholars organize facts about Harriet Tubman. In this writing lesson, students research Harriet Tubman, sort facts about her into two categories, and use the information they have found to write about her life in complete paragraphs.

Learners work in a small group to create news stories, feature stories and editorials/letters to the editor and organize them in a podcast, video-based program, or newspaper/magazine focused on Hurricane Katrina.

Eighth graders draw the structure of an atom. They construct atomic models, list parts/locations of an atom, organize parts of the periodic table and write a descriptive report about an element.

Sixth graders identify table and each of its parts, including cell, column, row, header, and formula bar. Students then explain how tables are used to store and organize information in database, organize and categorize information...

Third graders practice identifying the main idea and supporting details when reading informational text. They read text related to waterfalls and practice note taking skills to identify critical details. Students use their notes to...

Learners discover the different stages of mitosis by examining onion roots under a microscope, drawing diagrams of what they see, and organizing collected data in a chart and create a pie graph from their lab data.

Strong comprehension questions and a list of initiating events that drive the plot make this resource worth a try in your classroom. Intended for use with tools specific to the mindwing concepts reading strategy system, the outline...